Paul then looked at me, and I politely thanked him for his time. He smiled at me again and nodded his head, and many of his young followers were also smiling, and nodding their heads in agreement. Clearly, I was the only one in the room who was disturbed by his response.

I think we are long past the point where supporting Paul has become a status symbol of sorts for his supporters. Supporting Paul doesn’t say as much about Paul as it does about you and how hip you are. You are not “Establishment,” you reject conventional thought about how a Presidential candidate should look and act, you are blazing the path for future third way candidates. Consider this fawning and servile piece by Tim Carney in which we are informed that it is the “GOP Establishment” that has improperly drawn “the bounds of permissible dissent” at excluding racist cranks, 9/11 truthers, and propagandists for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yes, Ron Paul is the Barack Obama of 2012, and Tim Carney is playing the part of Andrew Sullivan.

As the hits keep pouring in (and they are not nearly done), I am left to honestly wonder what would convince his supporters of the truth – that they are actually on the butt end of a cruel joke wherein instead of looking cool and hip the world at large is appalled at their willingness to smile and nod at literally every crazy thing he says. I have long theorized that the base of Paul’s support is hardcore anti-war leftists who find Barack Obama insufficiently dovish. However, at least some of his support is ostensibly Republican and/or non-insane Independent. What would it take at this point to convince these people that they’re just embarrassing themselves by holding fast to this flawed vessel? Compromising pictures of Paul with a male goat? Video footage of Paul suggesting that the Government wants to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep United States citizens from fleeing to Mexico? What?